Main Session 4 - Sunday Evening

This evening we opened with a worship session magnifying God and what He's done. During worship, several people read testimonies. I didn't get this down, but courtesy of the Na liveblog, here's what they shared:

Jen: Let me tell you what God has done for me. Last June I was diagnosed with a chronic disease. God has carried me through 12 difficult months of medical tests, complications, and pain. The Lord has used this physical suffering to show me my sin, to loosen my grip on things that I had once thought were so important, and leave me clinging to Him alone. His Word has been my most faithful companion. He has proven again and again to be a merciful, Sovereign God who carefully designs every trial to be used for our good and for His glory.

Derek: My uncle was diagnosed with kidney failure a couple of years ago. Last fall, he was well enough to be a candidate for kidney transplant surgery and just needed a kidney donor. I felt bad because of all he was going through and asked if I could donate my kidney. God gave me a peace about the entire process and used this situation to improve my uncle’s health and to strengthen his walk with God. This is what God has done for me and my family.

Maritza: In September of 2005, I woke up with a corneal ulceration and was informed by doctors that I'd probably go blind in my right eye. Just when I ran out of funds for the various visits to the doctor, some fellow believers from my church decided to pay for health insurance for me. Upon hearing the news and in the midst of thanking God he simultaneously healed me and restored my sight completely.

Tommy: I lived in a community called St. Bernard in the very southeastern part of Louisiana. When Hurricane Katrina hit I lost my home, all of my possessions. My children moved 3 hours away. While it seems that I may have lost everything, God has graced me with the greatest gift of all. He has blessed me with a personal relationship with His son, Jesus Christ. God has shown me my in-sufficiencies, my in-adequacies and my weaknesses while at the same time revealing His awesome greatness and love for me. What a great God we serve.

Chris: Over two and a half years I have seen the Lord change my heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. He has changed my relationship with my dad from being my worst enemy to now being one of my closest friends. I have watched as God has been faithful to me to keep every promise in His word to sanctify me and make his desires my desires.

Jon: My son Chase was diagnosed with a fatal birth defect and died in my arms shortly after he was born. God has given me a deeper experiential knowledge of Calvary and grace to grieve with hope and joy. God has shown how glorious He is in the midst of tragedy and death. This is what God has done for me.


C.J. Mahaney gave us his message in the category "Discern Your Heart."

The Idol Factory

Exodus 20

American Idol. I don’t get this show. For some reason they have been popular for five years.

How ironic that this massively popular show makes an explicit reference to idolatry in the very title of the show. Most people think idolatry is something outdated with ancient civilizations. They would be wrong.

Idolatry endures.

It exists in more sophisticated settings – or, in the case of American Idol, not sophisticated

“As modern people we usually think of an idol as an animal or human figure made out of stone or wood…… We have, in effect, distanced ourselves from the whole idea of idolatry by pushing it out to the extreme cultural and psycholoical margins of life.” – Richard Kee, No God But God

If you are one of the people who has done this, this evening could be a defining moment in your Christian life. Understanding and applying this topic has the potential to make a dramatic difference in your growth in godliness, involvement in the local church, and heart for the lost.

Here’s what we will discover about this topic:

Idolatry is the most frequently discussed and most seriously condemned sin in Scripture.

“The whole Bible is written as a fullscale assault on idolatry.” - Ligon Duncan

Exodus 20 – And God spoke all these words, saying: I am the lord your god, who brought you out of the land of egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” – Exodus 20:1-2

This command could not be clearer, and what God says to israel, he says to every christian. I rescued you from sin and your slavery to sin, through my son’s death on the cross. You shall have no other gods before me.

We learn in Romans that prior to conversion, idolatry was our primary offense against God. (Romans 1:18, 21:25)

Bad tradeoffs in sports. The Boston Red Sox owner, in order to finance a musical, sold Babe Ruth to the NewYork Yankees.

This trade we read in Romans 1 is without doubt the worst trade – and this trade has eternal implications. Everyone, prior to conversion, has made this trade and approved this trade.

The trade of the Thessalonians (1 Thess 1:9) is the best trade, and if you have been converted by the grace of Jesus Christ, your conversion is no difference. You are looking at before/after pictures of your life.

But that is not where the story and experience of idolatry in our lives end. The presence of sin remains

Scripture addresses the tendency to idolatry, and also provides a solution. 1 Cor 10:13-14, Col 3:5

We will not mature beyond our battle with this tendency, prior to death. Biblical experience contributes to the weakening of idolatry,but the struggle will last the entirety of our lives.

It is unacceptable for this to be a foreign topic for the church – but, as one looks over evangelical Christianity, there is little distinction between the church and the world in this area. “There can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols,” Os Guinness

Given the Scriptural emphasis on idolatry, we must not distance ourselves from this topic. It is crucial for us to be theologically informed and discerning, so that we might detect and destroy the idols of the heart.

Shoes or clothing with Nike swoosh. William Bowerman and Phil Knight co-founded Nike. Upon Bowerman’s death, this was written:

“He seemed to awaken each morning with new eyes.”

Understanding idolatry will give you new eyes.

New eyes so that you might discern, detect, and destroy the idols that are active in your soul. Understanding idolatry will give you new eyes to discern and appreciate the Savior’s sacrifice on the cross for our idolatry.

I can little unpack the topic this morning, but I can give you an appropriate appetite for more information on this topic.

1. Defining idolatry.
2. Discerning idolatry
3. Understanding effects of idolatry in our lives.

Defining idolatry

An idol is anything you serve in place of God. An idol is a false god, and in effect, a false, functional god.

“An idol is something within creation that is inflated to function as God. All sorts of things are potential idols, depending only on our attitudes and actions towards them… Idolatry may not involve explicit denials of God’s existence or character… It may well come in the form of an overattachment to somehting that is, in itself, perfectly good… An idol can be a physical pobject, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hole, a image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero – anything that can substitute for God.” – Richard Keyes

“The evil in our desires usually does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much.” – John Calvin

Often, as Christians, what we want are gifts from God. The desire for a gift from God becomes a sinful craving. A ruling craving. Many things are gifts from God, but they are also potential objects of idolatry – not in and of themselves, but the idolatry merges internally when we want this gift from God too much, or as a substitute for God. When, in our hearts, there is an attachment to something that is in itself perfectly good.

Is there one of God’s gifts that you presently want too much?

Source of idolatry – remaining sin within. Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
“The human heart is a factory of idols…. Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” – John Calvin
How to identify idolatry?
1. Scripture
Heb. 4:12 “discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.”


How to identify idolatry?

2. The Holy Spirit

“Search me, O God, and know my heart.”

When trying to identify idolatry in our lives, we are dependent both on the Bible and the Holy Spirit

3. The Church

We need others to identify idols in our lives, because we can’t identify them on our own! We need the eyes of others on our souls because sin deceives and blinds. And the first person sin deceives and blinds is… you.

Too often I am blind to my own sin. I need someone to perceive my sin. I need the eyes of caring friends on my soul, and so do you.

I wore cargo shorts all day without realizing that the waist-size label on the back was still on. Nobody told me I had the blue strip still on there. They probably just thought; “What a moron!”

We go around with the “blue strip” of our sin on there, too. People won’t always tell us about our sin. “Open rebuke is better than secret love.”

4. Circumstances

How can you tell if you want something too much? Well, what is your response if you don’t obtain it?

What is your response if you do not receive the approval of others whose approval you desire?

What do you do if you don’t get a (job, acceptance at university, etc.) that you want?

Here my laptop battery died. Shortly afterward, CJ discerned that he had gone significantly overtime, but we encouraged him to finish. He quickly laid out a "Discerning Idols Starter Kit," comprising articles and chapters by authors he wanted us to read. I didn't get these down, but they'll be on the Na website after the conference.

A few notes I scribbled down from his remarks:

In the test of adversity you discern how much idolatry is in your heart.

If I wanted to gauge maturity among guys, I'd probably have a sports event... Sports has a way of revealing idolatry in people.

"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols" - 1 John 5:21

What rules my behavior?